Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) is a broadcasting and multicasting service offered over mobile telecommunications networks, such as General Packet Radio System (GPRS) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) networks, Evolved Packet System (EPS) and the like. The technical specifications for MBMS include 3GPP TS 22.146, 3GPP TS 23.246 and 3GPP TS 26.346.
Mobile TV is an example of a service that may be provided over MBMS. Mobile TV is a service provided to subscribers via mobile telecommunications networks, thereby providing television services to mobile devices.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a known architecture 100 for providing MBMS in a shared network basis. The architecture 100 comprises an operator network 110, such as a GPRS, UMTS and EPS network.
The operator network 110 comprises a communication node 112, such as a base station, which is coupled to one or more user equipment (UE) devices, a UE comprising, by way of example, a mobile telephone handset. The operator network 110 further comprises a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 114, which is coupled to a Broadcast Multicast Service Centre (BM-SC) 130.
The architecture 100 further comprises a MBMS network 140. In the same way as for the operator network 110, the MBMS network 140 comprises a communication node 142, coupled to the one or more UEs 120, and a GGSN 144, coupled to the BM-SC 130. The MBMS network 140 is, in this case, a shared network. That is to say, the MBMS network 140 may be utilised for the provision of, for example, Mobile TV by more than one operator.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the provision of services, such as Mobile TV via MBMS utilising the architecture of FIG. 1, as is known in the art.
A first UE 210 is coupled to a first operator network 220, and a second UE 230 is coupled to a second operator network 240. Each of the operator networks 240 is coupled to a BM-SC 250. The BM-SC 250 is further coupled to a shared MBMS network 260, arranged to provide content, for example Mobile TV content, to the UEs 210, 230 by way of broadcasting/multicasting content streams.
The BM-SC 250 receives operator-related content, which is content specific to one of the operator networks 220, 240, as well as common content.
Each of the operator networks 220, 240 advertises, or otherwise provides, information publicising available content to their respective UEs 210, 230. That is to say, the first operator network 220 provides information publishing operator #1 content and common content to the first UE 210. Conversely, the second operator network 240 provides information publishing operator #2 content and common content to the second UE 230.
A UE 210, 230 is then able to request from its respective operator network 220, 240 the content that it wishes to receive (e.g. subscribe to). The operator network 220, 240 subsequently informs the BM-SC 250 of the requested content, and informs the UE 210, 230 of the channel(s) on which the requested content will be available, as well as any encryption keys etc. required to access the content. The BM-SC 250 then provides the content to the shared MBMS network 260, from which the UE 210, 230 is able to obtain the content.
A problem with this known implementation of MBMS is that all content, including operator specific content, is required to be fed to a single, shared BM-SC in order to be provided over the MBMS network. This is undesirable from an operator's perspective for various reasons including, by way of example:                i) commercial agreements between operators and content providers that may not allow the operator to deliver the content outside of their administrative domains;        ii) Operators may want to provide higher layer service functions, such as access control and charging, within their network for trust reasons; and        iii) Operators may already have a BM-SC platform commissioned, and as such would like to reuse their available functionality.        
Thus, for example, existing wideband CDMA core networks (such as 3GPP wireless communication systems) are preferred to be de-coupled when considering delivery of MBMS multimedia streams.
A need therefore exists for an improved method and apparatus for providing multimedia broadcast multicast services over a shared network wherein one or more of the abovementioned disadvantage(s) may be alleviated.